Saint Waldebert

Who was Saint Waldebert?

Waldebert, was a Frankish count of Guines, Ponthieu and Saint-Pol who became abbot of Luxeuil in the Benedictine Order, and eventually a canonized saint in the Roman Catholic Church, like several among his kinsmen who protected the Church, enriched it with lands and founded monasteries.

Like his predecessor at Luxeuil he was born of the noble Frankish family of Duke Waldelenus of Burgundy, highly influential in seventh-century Frankish politics and served in the military before dedicating himself to the contemplative life and joining the monastery at Luxeuil on the borders of Austrasia and Burgundy, where he dedicated his weapons and armour, which hung in the abbey church for centuries. He lived as a hermit close to the abbey until the death of the monastery's abbot, Saint Eustace of Luxeuil, when Waldebert was elected Luxeuil's third abbot.

He was abbot of the monastery for forty years, during which the school of Luxeuil trained the Frankish aristocrats who became bishops in the Frankish kingdoms; Waldebert oversaw the move of the monastery from the Rule of St. Columban to the Benedictine Rule, though in the rule he drew up for the convent of Faremoutiers he drew upon the rules of Columbanus as well as Benedict, but made no mention whatsoever of a ritual of either profession or oblation. He also gained from Pope John IV the independence of his community from episcopal control and increased the size and prosperity of the monastery's territories and buildings. Naturally Jonas dedicated to him his vita of Saint Columbanus. Among numerous houses founded from Luxeuil during his tenure, he was instrumental in aiding Saint Salaberga found her convent at Laon.